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Zelda is No Longer Royalty in Skyward Sword

It's only fitting for a legend to be based on a princess, but one of the most famous faces in Nintendo royalty is about to lose her crown, as Eiji Aonuma has revealed that Zelda is no longer a princess in Legend of Zelda: Skyward Sword. So what is Link's relationship with his long time collaborative partner? Aonuma says:

She's a childhood friend, but she goes away in the midst of the game and it's Link's job to search for her.

She may not wear the crown, but she'll still play a major role in the game's story, as Aonuma explains:

This game's plot is something like a school drama, you could say. The flying sequence at the E3 demo is Link competing against his classmates. One of them looks kind of a like a bad guy, as you saw, and he shows up in other ways in the game too, since he has a major thing for Zelda.

Check out the game's E3 trailer below and ruminate about Zelda's lack of royal connections in the comments further down.

No doubt this will be a memorable Zelda adventure and the more I hear about it the more I feel like this will truly be a much more refreshing take on the series. Can't wait! It'd sure be nice to have some other Wii games to play in the meantime though. >

I might be imagining things, but it seems as if the design of Link's face (and eyes in particular) has been significantly improved as of E3; in the prior trailers, particularly GDC, I thought his eyes looked very dark and odd, and his expression un-Link-like. Now it looks perfectly normal. I'm still not a huge fan of Zelda's design, though, nor do I care for this villain.

I actually like it. From the video it looks like a cross of Twilight Princess and Windwaker graphic wise. It doesnt look like South Park like everything did in Windwaker. Now if they did Windwaker to like this graphic wise I probably would have been able to play it.

@mariofanatic128: It's possible that Minish Cap takes place first, but no one really knows. Reoccurring characters like Link and Zelda are reincarnated in most of the games, so this isn't the same Link as the one in Ocarina of Time, Wind Waker, Twilight Princess, etc.

I don't know why everyone fusses about the new Zelda. The OT Zelda is fine, but I think changes now and then shouldn't be a mess. It's not the same Link and Zelda in every game (should be clear since WW, was in the games since Zelda II), so why should they always look the same?

So does that mean Link will have to save Zelda by passing the 6 temples of classes? The Science Temple, The English Literature Temple, The Algebra Temple, The PE Temple, the History Temple and the Final Exam Temple! And then Ganondorf will be revealed to be the principal for no reason.

@Sushi No, no, no. The love triangle will involve Zelda, Link, and the Skyward Sword girl. After they save Zelda, Link will realize the girl of his dreams was right in front of him all this time. Also after Zelda's rescue, instead of returning to Skyloft, the native Hylians make her their prom queen.

It's interesting news, but it's not the first time they've had a "Zelda" that wasn't a princess. Tetra in "Wind Waker" was a pirate, though she WAS a descendent of the princess Zelda, so I guess technically she still had royal blood in her.

Nice to have this confirmed. I figured this already. I have a feeling this is going to cover the Hyrule Civil War mentioned in OoT.. I don't claim to be an expert/fanboy/whatever you want to call them but given what I've seen from the trailers, it seems to fit in with many things mentioned in OoT and TP. If the King of Hyrule hasn't unified Hyrule yet then how would Zelda be a princess? Looking forward to "Holiday Season 2011"

@ 52 The only known split is the Wind Waker and Twilight Princess timelines thus far... I was hoping Aonuma was going to resolve that, but instead he introduced a prequel to what was supposed to be the prequel of all prequels, The Imprisoning War er, OoT.

i LOVE the new art style! it simply looks fantastic! and i was convinced by the demo too, but this school drama thing is scary...

well she obviously was zelda.. did so many of you really not figure it out??? if anyone is still wondering you know what you are she does look like a princess no matter what they say she is.. and ofc.. she looks exactly like zelda from a link to the past anyway... only with less gold ofc.. damn that pic didn't seem so big on that page..

Classmate? NICE! It's time we should see some smootching between Link and Zelda? I mean, if I went throught 10 dungeons, collected various items and defeated alot of bosses, for my classmate sake, I would aleast expect a hug. Well, that's just me. I don't know about you guys.

Well, I guess there had ot be ONE way to make a commoner like Link get to hook up with Princess... er... with Zelda. ^^;

Then again, PRINCESS Zelda had no problems being the childhood friend to the Link from Minnish Cap. Of course, he was related to their royal blacksmith... man... my head hurts... I want that Zelda Timeline! lol

Sadly, even though im an enormous fan of the series and even have the Sheikah eye symbol tattooed on my wrist to prove it, my excitement for this game has kind of evaporated. For one, its coming to a system that's pretty much dead and now the reveal of this teen-centric story arc has me rolling my eyes. I really hope they pull out some super amazing surprises to change my mind and make me NEED this new Zelda like I did every other game in the main series but as things stand now, I could just as easily skip it.

I like this new Zelda design. She's no longer just some emo woman who just looks at everything happening and is overshadowed by every other person in the universe: she's revitalizing her role that she took in the Minish Cap: a childhood friend that you truly feel attached to and is the reason for your adventure.

Not surprising for me, since the recent Nintendo Power I got yesterday hinted that Zelda's role would be different this time around. Still, I'm glad that they've shaken things up. You're not alone, wes008, I sort of like her design too. Makes you wonder though if that new villain (whose name is Lord Ghirahim) is related to Ganondorf. Then again, since Skyward Sword would have to be the first chronological Zelda game, could the demonic pig Ganon appear?

They said they drew a lot of inspiration from Majora's Mask when developing the characters that interact with you in the sky city. GOOD. That makes me believe this will be far better than Twilight Princess.

GOOD. I'm not reading the spoilers. All I have to say is that I've grown sick and tired of the same old same old Zelda story. It's about time they tried something different. In fact, I would totally be in favor of a Legends of Hyrule series, rather than the repetitive Legend of Zelda. That world has grown so much, there are better stories to be told than "Links saves Princess Zelda... again..."

I don't like the sound of School drama, but in the end I guess the story will click. One things for sure: It's good that Zelda doesn't start out as a princess. This story will tell how Zelda came to be in Hyrule. Something different for once!

I think it's interesting that they're taking the story and setting in a unique direction. Twilight Princess was a fantastic game, but people rightfully complained that it didn't do enough to differentiate itself from Ocarina of Time. Skyward Sword seems like it will be the biggest departure from the Zelda norm yet, and personally, I'm all for it!

@xDemon720x: This doesn't really change anything, we still don't know if Skyward Sword takes place before or after Minish Cap. It's not going to shatter any timeline theories, either, because we already know it comes before OoT.

@SilverBaretta: My first reaction was actually "Vaati's back!" At first I was disappointed to find out he's not Vaati, but after seeing the demo footage from this E3, I'm convinced that Ghirahim will be the best villain in the series.

There has to be a reason why all the princesses are named Zelda, and it had to come during/before the dawn of Hyrule. I expected this, and seeing her design from the trailer, I never thought for a minute she would be a princess. At least, not at the games opening...

KaiserGX:"If it's the story of the first Zelda, I except her to sleep at the end of the game. THE LEGEND OF ZELDA."

Exactly. B/c Zelda 2''s storyline explains this, unless Nintendo is retconning this portion of the story. However, just b/c it is known to be before OoT, doesn't mean it is the first in the chronology.

Actually, if I recall correctly, in Zelda II, the Princess Zelda is put under a curse that was caused by her bratty brother. Feeling ashamed, he called for every newborn princess to be named "Zelda".

"A long time ago the Prince of Hyrule had tried to obtain the Triforce, but Zelda refused to tell him the location of it. In order to extract the information from her, he brought in a Magician to interrogate her. Unable to find out any information, the wizard cast a sleeping spell on her, which also resulted in his own death. The prince, being unable to reverse the spell, had his sister placed in the castle tower, in the hope that she would one day be awakened. He decreed that all females born to the royal family from that point on would be named Zelda, in remembrance of this tragedy."From this page: http://zelda.wikia.com/wiki/Zelda_II

In other news, we got motion controls, and now this story is probably going to be another thing people will whine about. Personally, I'm all for it, though it all comes down to how great the gameplay will be, which I know it will be!

Wait that girl is ZELDA!? I thought it was Skyward Sword's equivalent to OoT's Saria and TP's Ilia (ie just a childhood friend, not Zelda herself). Well, the statement that it'll have school drama seems like an awful idea to me. We've seen that scenario HUNDREDS of times in games, movies, and books before. And yeah, the fact that Zelda is kidnaped is getting old for me too. Hope the story has more dramatic twists and such, kinda like how Twilight Princess's narrative was presented ('Tis why TP's story is my favorite out of the Zelda's even though it was, at its core, a very similar scenario to OoT).